John Robertson

Strategic executive leader with expertise in guiding engineering and product teams in digital identity, cryptography, machine learning, and online education. Experience includes software architecture, cybersecurity, and storage solutions as a C-level technology advisor and lead developer. Proven success in developing and marketing innovative technical products and founding startups, driving advancements that align with business objectives.

• Architected and innovated business software for 24 years, including cutting-edge digital ID product (six months ahead of Microsoft’s less functional version), military-grade digital communications, DoD-ready cybersecurity, Linux supercomputing visualizations, and AI-driven auto repair software
• Led four-year development of patented, ultra-secure last-mile communication platform (video, text, voice) for iOS, Android, and web; innovated call routing, access control, end-to-end encryption, and more, offering more robust security features than Microsoft Teams, Signal, and WhatsApp
• Oversaw engineering, QA, product management, documentation, and marketing for highly secure and scalable, DoD-certified, enterprise-class voicemail solution installed at 180 US military bases across US, Europe, and Asia among other locations ($6M annual revenue and millions of users)
• Led development of Linux high-performance cluster storage and visualizations for cutting-edge enterprises including Boeing, GM, and US Army Research Lab at $26M company acquired by SGI; tailored business and development proposals for complex R&D projects requiring supercomputing
• Played key role in building $120M start-up, leading 18 engineers in full development of innovative machine learning solution for auto shops; secured $120M VC funding and created mature product in three years, leading to $500M PE sale (following interest from Toyota, BMW, Honda, and others)
• Commercialized single sign-on tool six months ahead of Microsoft Passport (now used for all Microsoft accounts); led 23 developers in bleeding-edge architecture of third-party internet identity broker solution (DigitalMe), which added $6M revenue; demonstrated scalability to 40M users
• Awarded nine US patents for innovations in quorum encryption, communications, multi-identity brokering, one-time-use credit card minting, massively scalable directory tree resiliency, and more
• Founded ecommerce start-up providing products, services, and CISOs to managed security service providers; partnered with industry vendors/associations and developed entire frontend/backend
• Boosted performance 10x across four Novell dev teams by optimizing infrastructure for 200M lines of code; improved dev efficiency/engagement with robust communications and project management
• Enabled growth of data backup & recovery solution to $4M through market-leading QA, reliability, and service, leading to Infrascale acquisition; oversaw development, finance, manufacturing, and HR
• Debugged several low-level, systemic Microsoft Windows™ defects through weeks of crash testing in an R&D lab

• Architected and innovated business software for 24 years, including cutting-edge digital ID product (six months ahead of Microsoft’s less functional version), military-grade digital communications, DoD-ready cybersecurity, Linux supercomputing visualizations, and AI-driven auto repair software
• Led four-year development of patented, ultra-secure last-mile communication platform (video, text, voice) for iOS, Android, and web; innovated call routing, access control, end-to-end encryption, and more, offering more robust security features than Microsoft Teams, Signal, and WhatsApp
• Oversaw engineering, QA, product management, documentation, and marketing for highly secure and scalable, DoD-certified, enterprise-class voicemail solution installed at 180 US military bases across US, Europe, and Asia among other locations ($6M annual revenue and millions of users)
• Led development of Linux high-performance cluster storage and visualizations for cutting-edge enterprises including Boeing, GM, and US Army Research Lab at $26M company acquired by SGI; tailored business and development proposals for complex R&D projects requiring supercomputing
• Played key role in building $120M start-up, leading 18 engineers in full development of innovative machine learning solution for auto shops; secured $120M VC funding and created mature product in three years, leading to $500M PE sale (following interest from Toyota, BMW, Honda, and others)
• Commercialized single sign-on tool six months ahead of Microsoft Passport (now used for all Microsoft accounts); led 23 developers in bleeding-edge architecture of third-party internet identity broker solution (DigitalMe), which added $6M revenue; demonstrated scalability to 40M users
• Awarded nine US patents for innovations in quorum encryption, communications, multi-identity brokering, one-time-use credit card minting, massively scalable directory tree resiliency, and more
• Founded ecommerce start-up providing products, services, and CISOs to managed security service providers; partnered with industry vendors/associations and developed entire frontend/backend
• Boosted performance 10x across four Novell dev teams by optimizing infrastructure for 200M lines of code; improved dev efficiency/engagement with robust communications and project management
• Enabled growth of data backup & recovery solution to $4M through market-leading QA, reliability, and service, leading to Infrascale acquisition; oversaw development, finance, manufacturing, and HR
• Debugged several low-level, systemic Windows defects through weeks of crash testing in an R&D lab

• Managed offshore team in architecting HR software solutions for SMBs at health benefits provider Ceridian (acquired by Horizon); balanced accounting by analyzing database to identify hundreds of millions of dollars in misplaced benefits spending and compensation; wrote automated test scripts to uncover issues
• Led teams of up to 13 engineers in advanced feature architecture and development for Novell, including security, encryption, digital signatures, remote operation, MIME, IMAP, POP integration, and more; assigned to build and grow the email and calendar apps, standing out as an inventive, commercially savvy developer
• Doubled throughput and performance of Novell’s reverse web proxy server by finding the “right” single line of code out of hundreds of thousands to fix a critical bug after weeks of intense, arduous product analysis
• Improved performance, resiliency, and defect risk by streamlining software to a quarter of its original code
• Added $2M annual profit by creating a no-code programming tool for courseware designers that enabled a K-12 online education company to triple its course output while streamlining developer headcount 66%
• Presented at many conferences on topics including AI, cybersecurity, software architectures, and innovation